Common Conditions

Stop Shaming Overweight Kids: It Makes Things Worse

Nearly a third of American youth are overweight or obese, with somecommunities experiencing significantly higher rates of overweight and obesityamong children. As it turns out, body shaming parents and health careproviders may be unwittingly hindering efforts to curb childhoodobesity. Body shaming parents, teachers, and physicians may not evenrealize that they are shaming overweight kids in how they discuss the issue, so an effort to educateall members of the public regarding childhood obesity is warranted.

You Might Also Like

Arecent report published by the American Academy of Pediatrics issuedrecommendations to adults and the media on howto effectively address obesity in children and adolescents. For onething, they emphasized that obesity is not an issue of poorself-control or carelessness, but rather a health condition withcomplex roots ranging from socioeconomics to family history to mentalhealth.

The idea that overweight or obesity is a conscious choice among youth is simply not true and can underlie teasing, bullying, and blaming, none of which motivate youth to lose weight; shaming overweight kids for theireating habits and level of physical activity has been proven to be anineffective tactic. The crux of this report contends that this conception of childhood of obesityhas actually exacerbated the problem, leading to an increased risk of binge eating disorders, social isolation, more weight gain, and avoidance of physical activity and school.